PJ Harvey Returns With NASA-Inspired New Single Voyager
Wednesday, 24 June 2026
Written by Jon Stickler
Photo: Steve Gullick
PJ Harvey has returned with a new single called Voyager.
Released via Partisan Records and inspired by NASA's Voyager probes launched in 1977, which are still travelling through space today, the haunting track was originally written for the Grammy-nominated British artist's next album, details of which remain under wraps. It was later reworked and recorded with a full orchestra at Miraval Studios in Provence, France after physicist Professor Brian Cox invited her to contribute a song to his Emergence live show. Harvey explained:
"I was excited for the challenge to compose a song in the ‘voice’ of Voyager 2. I have long been fascinated by the spacecraft and its journey, and asked myself, ‘What it might say to us if it could?’ This was an inspiring route to take to develop the song.
"The song had already started life as part of the ongoing work towards my new album, so when Professor Brian Cox invited me to write a piece for his new show, I sent him the voice memo of this song to see if it resonated. It immediately made him think of the Voyager craft and the sound of its signal being sent back to Earth. With these ideas as my starting point I let the song develop, and discussed an orchestral accompaniment with Dario Marianelli.
"I’m very happy with the end result, and it’s wonderful to hear the orchestral score bring such expansiveness to my music. I thoroughly enjoyed researching the history and journey of Voyager 1 and 2, and was glad to be able to quote the great Carl Sagan within the song, and his famous description of our fragile and beautiful ‘pale blue dot’."
The double Mercury Prize-winning singer-songwriter, the only artist in the award's history to win it twice, released her most recent studio album, and 10th to date, 'I Inside The Old Year Dying', in 2023. More recently, she collaborated with composer Tim Phillips to create the score for the hit Apple TV+ series Bad Sisters, and worked with Ben Power to create music for the National Theatre production of London Tide.
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